Roll No: 52
Year: 2017-2019
Paper Name: The Neo Classical Literature
Study: M.A.
Sem: 1
Topic: Plot Of Tom Jones
Submitted To: Department Of English Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar
Plot Of Tom Jones
Plot Of Tom Jones
Introduction
Most of good stories begin with a fundamental list of ingredients such as the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense and conclusion. The great writers sometimes shake up recipe and some spices. The narrator provides that his purpose in the text will be to explore "human nature." As such, his story veers between several extremes - comedy and tragedy, low and high society, moral and base.
What is plot?
Plot mentions to the sequence of events inside a story which affect other events through the principle of cause and effect. A plot is one of the most important parts of a story and has many different objectives. The plot focuses attention on the important characters and their roles in the story. It motivates the characters to affect the story and connects the events in an orderly manner. It creates a desire for the reader to go on reading by absorbing them in the middle of the story, wanting to know what happens next. The plot leads to the climax, but by gradually releases the story in order to maintain the reader’s interest. During the plot of a book, a reader gets emotional and connects with the book, not allowing himself to put the book down. Eventually, the plot reveals the entire story and gives the reader a sense of completion that he has finished the story and reached a conclusion.
The plot is what forms a memory in the readers’ mind, allowing them to think about the book and even making them want to read it again. By identifying and understanding the plot, the reader is able to understand the message being conveyed by the author and the explicit or implicit moral of the s story.
Plot of Tom Jones
Henry fielding’s tom Jones was written during a time when fiction as literary form was emerging fielding experimented a lot with the style, character, plot, structure etc… in tom jones. The plot of tom jones is not loose and all the arguments are carefully joined so it is very balanced, symmetrical complex but neatly drawn. There are some 18 books in total that gives this novel a formal epic style beside there a lot of twists and misunderstanding in the plot which do not get solved until the climax.
The story is about the adventures of tom jones. He brought up by a rich landowner. He was traveled around England and faced many trabng les. Tom acquire an antagonist in the younger blifil Tom’s budding love for Sophia is built on the likeness of nature. Tom’s mistake confession that he was the father of molly’s child but Henry manage to maintain a positive impression in mind of the reader regarding the innate goodness of tom even his affair with lady Bellaston it is handled carefully. Ultimately fortune begins to turn in favor of Tom to bring about the final resolution of the plot.
Then there is the judgment we make about the pleasurable or painfui effects of the events that happen in the life of the hero. The hero is intrinsically virtuous. A series of painful incidents occur to him. We follow him thorough his troubles and distresses with a desire that he will eventually be delivered from theme. Our fear for the hero increasingly decliness as the plot progresses this attention of pity, fear and indignation is a necessarhy condition of the peculiar comic pleasure which is the form of the plot in ‘ TOM JONES’.
The comedy of blifil is indeed of this simple harsh kind but the comedy of tom and hence of the plot as awhole is of a different sort. It is not simple comedy but mixed. We always maintain a favorable attitude towards the protagonist irrespective of what the blunders arise from no permanent weakness of character but are merely the natural errors of judgment. Tom is good nature man and we expect him to go better and so our amused reaction to his sufferings lack entirely the punitive quality that characterizers comedy of the jonsonian type,
Thus the Aristotelian tragic emotion of pity and fear get transmuted to apprehension and pleasure in the comic mode. This ‘working or power of tom Jones’ the manner in which Henry handles the constituent parts of the novel. After having established the plot of tom Jones as a product of powerful and dynamic form, Crane makes an analysis of some of its shortcomings. And no any plot can be ideal or perfect even in tom Jones there are frequent longueurs (long and tedious sections) like the man of the hill story after summarizing the major factors that contribute to the organic unity plot of tom Jones
The distinctive character of this approach derives from the fact that it views a work of art as a dynamic whole which affects our emotions in a certain way through the functioning together of its elements in subordination to a determinate poetic form. of all the plot construction by English novelist that of Tom Jones has probably elicited the most ‘ Unqualified Praise ‘
The book opens with the narrator stating that the purpose of the novel will be to explore "human nature."The kindly and wealthy Squire Allworthy and his sister Bridget are introduced in their wealthy estate in Somerset. Allworthy returns from London after an extended business trip and finds an abandoned baby sleeping in his bed. He summons his housekeeper, Mrs. Deborah Wilkins, to take care of the child. After searching the nearby village, Mrs. Wilkins is told about a young woman called Jenny Jones, servant of a schoolmaster and his wife, as the most likely person to have committed the deed. Jenny is brought before them and admits being the baby's mother but refuses to reveal the father's identity. Mr. Allworthy mercifully removes Jenny to a place where her reputation will be unknown. Furthermore, he promises his sister to raise the boy, whom he names Thomas, in his household.
Two brothers, Dr Blifil and Captain Blifil, regularly visit the Allworthy estate. The doctor introduces the captain to Bridget in hopes of marrying into Allworthy's wealth. The couple soon marry. After the marriage, Captain Blifil begins to show a coldness to his brother, who eventually feels obliged to leave the house for London where he soon dies "of a broken heart". Captain Blifil and his wife start to grow cool towards one another, and the former is found dead from apoplexy one evening after taking his customary evening stroll prior to dinner. By then he has fathered a boy, who grows up with the bastard Tom. Captain Blifil's son, known as Master Blifil, is a miserable and jealous boy who conspires against Tom.
Tom grows into a vigorous and lusty yet honest and kind-hearted youth. Tom tends to be closer friends with the servants and gamekeepers. He is close friends with Black George, who is the gamekeeper. His first love is Molly, gamekeeper Black George's second daughter and a local beauty. She throws herself at Tom; he gets her pregnant and then feels obliged to offer her his protection. After some time, however, Tom finds out that Molly is somewhat promiscuous. He then falls in love with a neighbouring squire's lovely daughter, Sophia Western. Tom and Sophia confess their love for each other after Tom breaks his arm rescuing Sophia. Tom's status as a bastard causes Sophia's father and Allworthy to oppose their love; this criticism of class friction in society acted as a biting social commentary The inclusion of prostitution and sexual promiscuity in the plot was also original for its time, and the foundation for criticism of the book's "lowness".
Sophia's father, Squire Western, is intent on making Sophia marry the hypocritical Master Blifil, but she refuses, and tries to escape from her father's influence. Tom, on the other hand, is expelled from Allworthy's estate for his many misdemeanours. Allworthy had become ill and was convinced he was dying. The servants of his estate and family members gather around his bed as he disposes his wealth. He gives a favorable amount of his wealth to Tom Jones which displeases Blifil. Tom doesn't care about what he has been given, his only concern is Allworth's health. Allworthy's health improves and we learn that he will live. Tom Jones is so excited that he begins to get drunk and gets into a fight with Blifil. Sophia wants to conceal her love for Tom so she gives a majority of her attention to Blifil when the three of them are together. This leads to Sophia's aunt, Mrs. Western, believing that Sophia and Blifil are in love. Mr. Western wants Sophia to marry Blifil in order to gain property from the Allworthy estate. Blifil learns of Sophia's true affection for Tom Jones and is angry. Blifil tells Allworthy that the day he almost died, Tom was out drinking and singing and celebrating his death. This is what leads Tom to be banished. He starts his adventures across Britain, eventually ending up in London. Along his journey, he meets up with a barber, whom we learn is Partridge, who was banished from town because he was thought to be the father of Tom Jones. He becomes Tom's faithful companion in hopes of gaining his name back. During their journey they end up at an Inn where a lady and her maid arrive. An angry man arrives and the chambermaid points him in the direction she thinks he needs to go. He bursts in on Mrs. Waters, a woman Tom rescued along his journey, and Tom Jones in bed together. The man, however, was looking for Mrs. Fitzpatrick and leaves. Sophia and her maid arrive at the same Inn, and Partridge unknowingly reveals the relationship between Tom and Mrs. Waters. Sophia leaves with Mrs. Fitzpatrick, who is her cousin, and heads for London. They arrive at the home of Lady Bellaston, followed by Tom and Partridge. Eventually, Tom is able to tell Sophia that his true love is for her and no one else. Tom ends up getting into a duel with Mr. Fitzpatrick, which leads to his imprisonment.
Eventually the secret of Tom's birth is revealed, after a brief scare that Mrs Waters (who is really Jenny Jones) is his birth mother and that he has committed incest. Tom's real mother is Bridget, who conceived him after an affair with a schoolmaster — hence he is the true nephew of Squire Allworthy himself. After finding out about Tom's half-brother Master Blifil's intrigues, Allworthy decides to bestow the majority of his inheritance to Tom. Tom and Sophia Western marry after this revelation of his true parentage, as Squire Western no longer harbours any misgivings over Tom marrying his daughter. Sophia bears Tom a son and a daughter, and the couple live on happily with the blessings of Squire Western and Squire Allworthy.
Comments
Post a Comment